Technology : Crunch time looms for processed peas

MUSHY peas could soon lose their quintessential mushiness, thanks to the discovery of the chemicals that keep water chestnuts crunchy.

Most tinned fruit and vegetables lose their crunch during processing. But Chinese water chestnuts (Eleocharis dulcis) stay crunchy even after prolonged cooking. Keith Waldron and his colleagues at the Institute of Food Research in Norwich have now identified the chemicals that keep them crunchy. They say it might be possible to amplify this trait in fruit and vegetables that go mushy when canned or overcooked.

Waldron says that polymers called pectic polysaccharides glue adjacent cells together in raw fruit and vegetables. Cooking dissolves these polymers, breaking up the rigid matrix that holds the cells together, which is why cooked fruit and vegetables lose their crunch.

Waldron and his colleagues have identified chemicals in water chestnuts that stop the "glue" from dissolving during cooking. Molecules of ferulic acid, exist in pairs ...

To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.

To continue reading this article, log in or subscribe to New Scientist

App + web

Web

Smartphone

Tablet

$25.99 - Save 65%

12 issues for $2.17 per issue

with continuous service

Print + web

Print

Web

$28.99 - Save 61%

12 issues for $2.42 per issue

with continuous service

Print + app + web

Print

Web

Smartphone

Tablet

$39.99 - Save 73%

12 issues for $3.33 per issue

with continuous service

Web

Web only

$49.99

30 day web pass

Prices may vary according to delivery country and associated local taxes.